Georgia election officials were told election software updates not covered by open records requests

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Skip to contentOfficials warned against providing “information that could harm the security of election equipment."

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A recently revealed memo shows a top-ranking Georgia election official informing county election workers that they are not required to provide journalists and citizens with records of software updates applied to voting machines in the state.

Chris Harvey, the state elections division director, said in the Nov. 17 memo that “multiple counties have reported receiving Open Records Requests asking for data information” including, in part, “copies of any software patches performed on Dominion voting machines in the state of Georgia prior to the November 3, 2020 General Election.”

“Under the Open Records Act,” Harvey writes in the memo, “providing copies of software, software updates, or thumb drives containing software or software updates is not subject to open records requests.”

Information “that could harm the security of the election equipment” is forbidden from being shared, he added.

The letter was first reported on this week by the activist group VoterGA.

Georgia, like numerous other states, has been the focus of intense media scrutiny following the results of the 2020 election, in which numerous irregularities and allegations have surfaced regarding the integrity of the election results.

A Just the News investigation involving an open records request in Georgia revealed this week that the state, following an advisory from Dominion Voting Systems, informed election officials that memory cards from voting machines might have to be removed prior to the end of the election due to voting machine storage capacities.